Florida State rolling, Florida reeling as rivals prepare to collide

After 11 games, most of them decided by halftime, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has a pretty good handle on how his team responds in pressure situations.

Florida coach Will Muschamp isn't sure of anything when it comes to which Gators team will show up.

What Muschamp has to hope - and what Fisher obviously will warn his team about - is that a storied rivalry and all it means resonates within a team battered both physically and mentally as Florida's worst football season since the Jimmy Carter administration draws to a close Saturday when the Gators (4-7) play host to the second-ranked Seminoles (11-0).

Florida lost any chance to be bowl-eligible and have a winning season when it lost to FCS team Georgia Southern 26-20 on Saturday at Florida Field. Later in the day, the Seminoles were putting the finishing touches on the school record for points in one game by destroying Idaho 80-14.

Not since 1979 have the teams met while going in such diametrically opposed directions. The Seminoles beat the Gators 27-16 that year to improve their record to 11-0 in year four of the Bobby Bowden era, earning an Orange Bowl date that was the first major bowl appearance in FSU history.

The loss dropped the Gators to 0-9-1 in the first season under Charley Pell, and they went on to lose the following week to Miami to finish winless for only the second time in school history (UF went 0-5 in 1916).

While some rivalries produce unexpected upsets, that hasn't usually been the case when Florida plays FSU. The higher-ranked team is 33-11 in the series, and in the games where both teams were ranked, the average difference in the AP poll standing has been only 3.2 places.

Only four times has an unranked team beaten a ranked team in the history of the rivalry. UF's players can perhaps take some solace that unranked Gators teams won all of those games, beating ranked FSU teams in 2004, 1982, 1972 and 1971. However, the highest an FSU team was ranked in those games was 10th, in 2004. This situation might be a bit different, as the Seminoles have been tested in only one game (a 48-34 victory over Boston College on Sept. 29), have scored 41 or more points in all 11 games (the most the Gators have scored in a game is 31 points), have scored 50 or more points in seven games and have won their last three games by an average margin of 56.6 points.

Gators safety Cody Riggs said falling back on the legacy of once-proud UF teams is all the current group has going for it.

"Everybody knows who Florida is, how Florida is in history," he said after the loss to Georgia Southern. "So we really don't have to say anything. The only way I know how is to play and give it our all. Florida's going to be Florida. We're always going to play our hardest."

Offensive guard Jon Halapio said the only chance the Gators have against FSU is to embrace the challenge.

"We've got to treat this like our bowl game. … It really is our bowl game," he said. "Everybody, they really got to dig deep down inside for this week. This is a team coming in here that could potentially play in the national championship game. We've just got to fix everything starting off Monday."

Muschamp said placing blame can wait until after playing the Seminoles - not that it would do any good.

"At the end of the day, you take ownership with where we are," he said. "Nobody needs to point a finger right now. It's time to look in the mirror. I've told them that several times this season. Regardless of situation and circumstances, we need to produce better. That starts with me. So that's what we'll do."

Fisher, a longtime friend and coaching colleague with Muschamp, said he will continue with the consistency theme he's stressed all season and won't talk too much about the Gators' travails.

"It's about us," Fisher said. "We need to go play well. That's all we can control. All we can control is how we prepare and how we play, and that's got to be our focus."

While the Gators have their own problems - dealing with a losing season and the first-ever loss to an FCS team since the division was created in 1978 - the Seminoles have the recurring challenge of shutting out the distractions of quarterback Jameis Winston's legal problems when they take the field in either practice or a game.

State attorney Willie Meggs has indicated that a decision on whether to charge Winston with sexual assault is not likely to come before the Seminoles play Florida. While football games pale in comparison to the seriousness of the situation, Winston isn't letting anyone see him sweat.

"The football field is a sanctuary to me," Winston said after throwing for four touchdowns against Idaho. "And it's like that for all of our teammates. When all of us are on the field, everything is just zoned out. We focus."

But there is a sense of wariness among other FSU players about a wounded and cornered bunch of Gators. Memories are still fresh of the Gators pulling away from a 20-all tie last season in Tallahassee and beating the Seminoles 37-26 in a game that wasn't that close.

"They are going to come out and play us hard," said 'Noles nose guard Timmy Jernigan of Lake City. "Probably harder than any other team that we play. Last year, they came here and beat us, so we definitely remember that."

Florida quarterback Skyler Mornhinweg said there's a pride factor that transcends a won-loss record at any given point.

"We're the Florida Gators," he said. "We should be winning every game. We're upset about the [Georgia Southern] loss. We've got to go regroup and get ready for Florida State."

Garry Smits: (904) 359-4362

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